Psychosocial concerns of Nigerian women with breast and cervical cancer.

Cancer has the potential to provoke worries which should be assessed in order to adequately respond to patients' problems. We highlight in this paper the problems that concerned 30 women with cervical cancer (mean age 51.2) and 76 with breast cancer (mean age 44.9), how these concerns affected their emotional lives, and the factors associated with these worries. They were interviewed with the 33-item modified version of a German questionnaire rating psychosocial concerns (FBS) by Sullwold, and Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for psychopathological symptoms. Cervical cancer patients had significantly higher FBS and GHQ-12 scores than breast cancer. Breast cancer cases had FBS scores similar to those of women with sickle cell disease and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The commonest recurrent worries in both groups were depression about their condition (45%), thoughts of death (37%), insomnia (33.3%), bodily odour (30%), impairment of work efficiency (30%) terrifying dreams (27%) and fear of illness being life-long (25%). Over 90% denied experience of worries indicating social stigma. FBS scores were significantly correlated with GHQ scores and both were negatively associated with adequacy of social contacts. These data suggest the need for psychosocial intervention in such cases in Nigeria.